Following the team with a unique perspective on all things Phillies. Email me: PhilliesPhollowers@comcast.net – Peace, Love & Baseball – Jenn

Results tagged ‘ Jonathan Papelbon ’

The day started out so well. It was sunny outside, people seemed happy…even Chase Utley was smiling on the field during warm-ups. Anyone who follows this team knows what a rare moment that is. It just seemed like a good day where a sweep of the Marlins was totally possible. Heck, there was even breakdancing during the game! It was all going well until the 9th inning…

Before that frightening 9th inning, starting pitcher, David Buchanan pitched very well, allowing only 1 run on a solo homer through 6 1/3 innings. Although, he did almost have his head taken off while attempting to bunt, which was a bit scary.

But baseball carried on and the Phillies racked up hits, stolen bases and Ryan Howard even showed patience at the plate, drawing a walk in the 4th inning.

I finally got to see Maikel Franco play in person. He had an interesting day that included a broken bat RBI single where he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. He also had this play at third where he bobbled the ball, recovered and still got the out:

By the 9th inning, the Phillies had a 4-1 lead. But then Jonathan Papelbon came into the game. Granted, he has been mostly good all season. And anyone can blow a save…it happens (unless it is 2008 and you are Brad Lidge). When one blows a save however, that person should expect to get boo’ed. In fact, that person should boo themselves for sucking on that occasion. Instead, Papelbon decided to look into the crowd as he walked to the dugout and grab his crotch demonstratively in reply to the boo’s. After the game, he said he was “adjusting” himself. Really? And he could not wait 10 more steps to do so? I am not buying it.

His attitude just sucks. And his response was way out of line. After ejecting Papelbon for the gesture, umpire Joe West grabbed Papelbon by the shirt and shoved him. I cannot wait to see the blow back from that…stay tuned.

So the Phillies will ride this smelly, stinky 4-5 loss all the way across the country to San Diego where they start a 4 game series with the Padres tomorrow. For now, here is the Photo Album from today’s game which includes the happier moments.

Congratulations to Phillies pitchers Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, Ken Giles and Jonathan Papelbon and catcher Carlos Ruiz on Monday’s combined no-hitter against the Braves. It is the 12th no-hitter in Phillies history and the first combined no-hitter. Altogether, there have been only 11 teams in baseball history to record a combined no-hitter.

One other fun note is that this is the 3rd no-hitter caught by Carlos Ruiz in his career. He is ties for second all-time behind Jason Varitek, who caught four no-hitters for the Red Sox from 2001-2008.

Oddly enough, Hamels had what appeared to be one of his most difficult outings of the year, even though he did not allow a hit. His pitches were all over the place and he walked 5 batters. I am guessing this erratic performance completely confused Braves hitters.

Overshadowed in the 7-0 no-hit victory was a 5-RBI day for Ben Revere, who is now batting .310. Jimmy Rollins had 3 hits and Chase Utley walked twice. It was a nice day offensively, but the no-hitter took the front page news, as is appropriate.

So in an otherwise awful Phillies season, this was a very nice moment for the team and the fans. Fans do have a little more fun ahead as September call-ups start streaming in. It looks like Maikel Franco will finally get a shot in the Bigs. We will also get our first look at Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, the Cuban righty that the Phillies spent a fortune on and, so far, have little to show for it. Also, Mike Adams and Tony Gwynn Jr. will return.

I look forward to seeing the line-up for tonight’s game. First pitch is at 7:10pm and Kyle Kendrick will pitch. That is a nice gift to the Braves following the no-hitter. Just sayin’…

After watching Cliff Lee walk off the mound last night in pain with another elbow injury, I was pretty depressed. I was depressed earlier in the day after the Phillies did absolutely nothing at the trade deadline. But this was a whole new level of sadness. Because at that moment, I realized something; watching Phillies baseball just isn’t fun anymore.

Baseball is supposed to be fun. Remember when Roy Halladay said, “It’s only gonna get funner”? Ah, memories… Because where did all the fun go? Even when the Phillies sucked back in the early 1990’ and early 2000’s, it was still fun to watch. And on those teams, the players had fun playing, even when they were awful. Remember in 2003 when a bunch of players dyed their hair bleach blonde? They sucked…but it was fun! I still had a good time going to those games. But now, it feels like going to a funeral. So why is it so different now?

I have come up with two reasons: 1) There was hope back then. 2) The 2008 World Series changed the landscape of Phillies baseball.

Phillies fans have lost hope. Why? Because the current incarnation of this team and their management have made the same mistakes over and over and over. They refuse to make big changes and when they do make changes, the results are bad. Go back to the Cliff Lee trade. You know what the Phillies got for him…nothing. Ok, count Phillippe Aumont if you must, but he is a head case who is going nowhere. They traded Hunter Pence and got nothing. Here are a few other not-so-fun names to remember…Freddie Garcia, Adam Eaton, the contracts of Ryan Howard, Jonathan Papelbon and others, no trade clauses, etc. And the list goes on…

When you do the same thing repeatedly, how can you expect different results? You can’t. And therein lays the total lack of hope. As long as the same people are in charge and the same scouts are making bad decisions, nothing will change. And that is truly depressing.

And about that 2008 World Series…the Phillies have been on a steady decline since they lost the series in 2009. Phillies fans got a short taste of success and now, we expect it. Maybe that is not fair, but such is life.

Frankly, the way they Phillies have raised ticket prices every year and cancelled events (like the Phan Fest at Spring Training), giving us less access to players, is also a sore spot for fans. If you are going to take away some of my season ticket holder benefits, charge me more and give me less, then I EXPECT a superior product. And in that way, I feel fans are justified in their rage. Now that the team is awful, do you think ticket prices will go down? No way…because they have to PAY for all of their mistakes and ridiculous contracts. Or should I say, we the fans will pay? Or we will just stop coming to games as many have done already.

Because why should I have to pay to attend a funeral? Why should I pay to see players who are just as depressed as I am? And there you have it…NO FUN.

If the Phillies want to bring back the fun, they need to fire everyone in the front office and all of the scouts and start over. Give us something to look forward to. Give us a little hope. It is either that, or prepare to play to an empty stadium.

Yes, miracles never cease. The Phillies won a game last night! About an hour and a half before game time, however, it did not look like a game would be played. In Delaware just before Wilmington, the river overflowed and started to flood I-95. Then it took me ½ hour just to pass through Wilmington as I-495 to Philly is closed, and will be possibly for a year (gasp!) due to a bridge problem. Finally, I thought I was home free…then the heavy rain and floods came.

While contemplating building an ark, I inched down I-95 at about 15mph and struggled to see through my windshield. There were accidents all over the place. But the time I passed the airport in south Philly, I seriously thought I might not make it to the stadium as the water was so high on the road I might have floated away. After I finally parked, I had to trek through water 6 inches deep, well above my ankles, just to get into the stadium, which was equally flooded. But there was no way I was not getting my free Chase Utley bobblehead!

So I guess three miracles occurred last night. I made it to the game without having to build an ark, the sun came out 20 minutes before game time and then the Phillies actually won. Amazing! A.J. Burnett had a relatively easy job though. Only 1 batter in the Padres starting line-up was batting over .250. And some were batting under .200. This is a very bad team.

Then again, so are the Phillies. But the offense actually did score some runs, mostly thanks to Marlon Byrd who had 4 RBI on the night with a 3-run bomb in the 4th and a sac fly in the 6th inning. Utley, Ryan Howard and Ben Revere each had 2 hits each and Utley picked up another RBI. It looks like he intends to swing his way into the All-Star game again this year. Utley is batting .318 with 31 RBI and 4 homers so far.

But what is a Phillies game without an error? Howard let an easy ground ball sneak right between his legs in the 1st inning. Amazing. The rest of the fielding was pretty good though. Both Revere and Domonic Brown had impressive, diving grabs in the outfield, which was nice to see.

And then Jonathan Papelbon earned his 300th career save, but he did not exactly do it convincingly. Papelbon gave up 2 hits and then hit a batter to load the bases before finally recording 3 outs.

Also, before the game the Phillies signed their first round draft pick, Aaron Nola. And rookie reliever Ken Giles, who was called up on Sunday, still has not gotten into a game. And so we wait…

Here is the Photo Album from the game. The Phillies play the Padresagain tonight at 7:05pm and Cole Hamels will pitch.

On Friday and Saturday, the Phillies and Mets played 14 innings each day. When the Phillies did not score on Sunday in the bottom of the 9th, groans could be heard all over the ballpark. Three days in a row of extra baseball from two teams that are battling it out for last place…what could be more exciting? A lot of things, apparently.

The tone was different before the game started. It was a total love-fest, despite 2 days and 28 innings already played.

And with Cole Hamels pitching, there had to be hope for the Phillies.

Ryan Howard hit a two-run homer in the 4th inning to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead. But it was all downhill from there. The Phillies played sloppy ball in every way possible. There were a few nice plays in the field, but also some missed opportunities.

And the offense barely made Mets pitcher Jonathan Niese even break a sweat. It took him only 13 pitches to go through the first 2 innings as the Phillies were swinging at everything and either popping it up or dropping weak ground balls.

The worst play was in the 7th when, after a huge single to put a runner on 3rd base with 1 out, Domonic Brown got himself thrown out trying to reach second base. Ben Revere then grounded out, leaving the winning run on 3rd base.

The bullpen was holding steady at least. The Phillies made a bunch of moves before the game to find fresh arms as all these extra-long games had depleted the pen. Jeff Manship went on the DL after hurting his quad in Saturday’s marathon game. Phillippe Aumont and Cesar Jimenez were called up while Darin Ruf went back down to Triple-A to make room. Jimenez pitched a scoreless 8th inning while Jonathan Papelbon did the same in the 9th.

But when they finally got to the 11th and put in Aumont, that was pretty much the end of the game as he gave up a walk and then a 2-run homer to the Mets. Aumont has been a head case from Day 1; he has been up and down to the majors a few times in the past 2 years and staff have complained that he does not take direction well. In addition, he cannot throw strikes and this year, had walked nearly a batter every inning in Triple-A. If this is the best guy the Phillies had in the minors to bring up, this organization is in deep trouble.

The Phillies will now lose this series to the Mets even with 1 game remaining and they are 6 games below .500, the worst mark of the season. Things are not looking very good, to put it mildly.

Here is the full Photo Album from Sunday’s game. The final game with the Mets starts at 7:05pm on Monday.

There is a gigantic, scary black cloud hovering over this Phillies team. It’s called “the bullpen.” Run for cover! Here they come again!

Poor Cole Hamels watched his 133 pitch, 1-run, 7-inning performance and his 100th career win get washed down the storm drain on Sunday against the Mets. The Phillies bullpen flushed it right down the proverbial toilet. And this is only 1 of many frightening bullpen performances this year.

In fact, there are so few players out in the pen that team management trusts, they actually wound up putting in starter Roberto Hernandez in the 9th inning to try to clean up the mess Antonio Bastardo made. Bastardo took a 4-1 Phillies lead and totally obliterated it, allowing 3 earned runs including a 2-run homer.

Apparently, closer Jonathan Papelbon had a sore neck and back and was unable to pitch. Mike Adams and Jake Diekman were both unavailable, I assume because they each pitched in the previous 2 games. So by the 11th inning they were left with Jeff Manship, who walked 2 batters and gave up the winning run to the Mets.

Here is a really not-so-fun statistic for you: Every single pitcher, except Papelbon, in the Phillies bullpen has an ERA at or over 4.50. All of them. This team cannot possibly expect to go anywhere with those numbers.

And now, on top of getting swept by the Jays in 4 games and losing the final game to the Mets for a 2-5 record in 7 games, the Phillies need another starting pitcher because Hernandez was used yesterday in the pen. And the pickings in the minors are slim…

Speaking of the minors, the black cloud apparently followed Freddy Galvis there when he was sent down after the Jays series. He collided with a wall yesterday and broke his left clavicle; he now needs surgery. Earlier in Spring Training, he suffered from an awful MRSA infection and missed the first few weeks of the season. When he finally came back, he had exactly 2 hits in 46 at-bats and was finally sent down to Triple-A. And now he breaks a bone…wow. Maybe this is the universe telling Freddy to just stay in bed. Poor guy.

The Phillies are off today and I am sure the bullpen is very thankful for that. They will play a short, 2-game series with the Angels starting Tuesday night at 7:05pm.

The Phillies finally squeaked out a win against the Braves yesterday. Whew! But that 1-0 win was not the only oddity of the week.

For starters, the Phillies lost by the exact same score the night before. Cliff Lee pitched a gem and the Phils could not bother to score a single run. Ugh. Here are a few other weird notes from the week:

– A.J. Burnett, Thursday’s winning pitcher, claims that his newly formed hernia is helping him pitch better. Maybe the offense should start straining themselves to achieve a similar injury and then they can score more than 1 run per game? Genius!

– Speaking of genius, Jonathan Papelbon does not see pitch velocity as an issue. Granted, he has been much better of late. But really? Can I pitch then? I can probably hit around 60mph on the gun and since speed does not matter, I should do just fine against major league hitters. Put me in, coach!

– In other Pap news, Crossing Broad had reported that the Phillies closer not only went off verbally on the media about his velocity, but that he actually aimed a fart in their direction. Monty Python, Holy Grail fans are loving this (”I fart in your general direction!”) If you have never seen this move, I highly recommend it.

– In the same article, Crossing Broad also claims that Cliff Lee belched at the media. It seems there is a lot of hot air in the Phillies locker room.

– It looks like whoever yells the loudest really does win. Because after Brewers manager Ron Roenicke complained that Logan Schafer’s 8th inning at-bat on 4/9/14 was not scored a hit, MLB overturned the error originally given to Ryan Howard. Wow.

After losing 3 straight games to the Brewers, the Phillies bounced back with 3 straight wins over the Marlins. This all-or-nothing week ended with big offensive performances from 3 players today.

Chase Utley, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Will Nieves all had a 3 hit day. Nieves knocked in two runs in the 5th to tie the game at 3-3. And then Utley had the big bang in the 8th with a go-ahead home run, making it a final 4-3 Phillies win.

Kyle Kendrick pitched mostly well, although he was up and down. His game started a bit shaky thanks to another Ryan Howard error on the very first batter of the game. So Kendrick started in a hole right away, but he hung in there.

Other than the one error, the fielding was fairly clean. There was one base running blunder as Gwynn Jr. stumbled around third base and went home anyway where he was thrown out.

But the bullpen came into the late innings and actually held the lead. In fact, all 3 guys, B.J. Rosenberg, Antonio Bastardo and Jonathan Papelbon, retired each of the 3 batters they faced. Finally!

Speaking of the bullpen, Justin DeFratus has been sent back to the minors after some rather disastrous outings recently. Luis Garcia has taken his place.

And just one fun note about today’s game, it was Kid’s Opening Day. As part of that, some children were apparently commissioned to render their best images of Phillies players which were shown during each players first at bat. Some of the drawings are hysterical. Check out my Photo Album from the game to see those and more game shots.

After a devastating loss on Wednesday, the Phillies have bounced back in the next series, winning their first 2 games against the Cubs. Friday’s game was a 7-2 score and today they won 2-0 as Cliff Lee stunned the Cubbies.

Lee was able to lower his horrible 14.40 Opening Day ERA to only 6.00 with this 7 inning effort. So all is well again with the Phillies ace…yeah!

And the offense is not too shabby to start the season. Chase Utley is absolutely on fire after a very slow Spring Training. In the last 2 games, Utley has 5 hits and 4 RBI including 2 home runs. He also hit his 300th career double today and ended the game just a triple shy of the cycle.

Domonic Brown has also come to life with 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 RBI in these 2 games, plus ZERO strikeouts. Nada. That alone tells me he is in the zone.

Another interesting note is that we are learning some things about the Phillies manager, Ryne Sandberg, early in the season. First, he is totally in love with Jake Diekman. Diekman has pitched in 4 out of 5 games so far this season while fellow reliever Brad Lincoln has yet to throw a pitch. Justin DeFratus has pitched 1 inning and Jeff Manship has thrown exactly 2 pitches total.

Sandberg says he is trying to establish who fits in which spots in the bullpen. By the way, is that not what Spring Training was for? Just saying. And if he is looking for good fits, does this mean those 3 pitchers that have not been or barely been used do not “fit” anywhere? Hmmmm…

We have also learned that Sandberg is not totally sold on Roberto Hernandez. In Friday’s game, Hernandez appeared to be cruising in the 6th inning when, after one out was recorded, Sandberg pulled him and put in Diekman. Hernandez had given up 2 runs in the first 5 innings, but his pitch count was low (73). That was a weird move.

One last thing I like to mention about today’s game…Jonathan Papelbon saved a game! Miracles never cease! Yes, that comment is dripping with sarcasm. When he saves 3 or 4 in a row with minimal drama, I will curb my smart remarks. Until then, congrats Pap! You live to fight another day!

Can the Phillies sweep this series? Hope so! Game 3 is Sunday at 2:20pm and A.J. Burnett will pitch.

Wednesday night’s Phillies 3-4 loss to the Rangers was the kind that makes you want to scream. It was a game they had well in hand; very winnable. Enter the $50 million dollar man, Jonathan Papelbon:

Through 7 innings, starter Kyle Kendrick was great, allowing only 1 run. Rookie reliver Mario Hollands totally redeemed himself from a very rough outing the previous day by pitching a scoreless, hitless 8th inning. Papelbon entered the 9th inning with a 3-1 lead that any closer making $50 million dollars, the largest payday ever for a reliever, should be able to preserve. That did not happen.

Papelbon has lost 3-5mph off his fastball since the signing and has yet to make an adjustment for his lost velocity. He just keeps flinging the ball up there figuring he’ll get all the swings and misses of days past. He was severely up in the zone all inning and the Rangers put a beating on him with 4 hits and 2 walks.

The 2nd walk was literally a walk-off win for the Rangers. The 4th ball of the at-bat was not even anywhere near the strike zone. How does a veteran pitcher walk home the winning run? I almost looked like he just said “screw it, I want to go home now” and just threw the ball without even thinking. This is a big problem.

“Obviously, this is a disappointment,” Papelbon said. “I thought Kendrick pitched well enough to deserve that win, and unfortunately the bullpen wasn’t able to preserve it for him. But it’s a long season. I think that’s one of the stronger points of my game is being able to bounce back and not have any memory of the previous game good or bad.”

So he is saying “the bullpen” couldn’t hold the lead? Try again…the ONLY guy who gave up a run after Kendrick left the game was Papelbon. The least he could have done was owned it.

And one of the strongest points of his game is a lack of memory? I guess he likes to take full advantage of this “strong points” by blowing games so he can then utilize his terrible memory to the fullest.

But maybe a bad memory is not so helpful. Frankly, I think Papelbon needs to remember what he did wrong and try not to do it again. I know he was speaking more to the mental aspect of the game, but perhaps those words have a deeper meaning than he realizes. If we do not remember, how can we learn from our mistakes?

Or is that a moot point and Papelbon’s career is to suffer a very expensive and painful end? Not expensive for him, of course. But the Phillies have him under contract for at least 2 more seasons, with an automatic vesting option for 2016 if he finishes 15 games in 2015. That is a scary thought.

Yes, it is only 3 games into the season. But this issue goes all the way back to last season and Papelbon has still not adjusted his pitching style. Is he capable of doing so? Sure, I think so. But will he? That is the real question.

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